Life Amid a Winter Scene [Haibun]

The forest is silent, and winter has painted the woods in earthen hues. Bare black loam is spottily strewn with beige to brown leaves -- dried to a curl and crunch that's almost crumbling. If any animals are moving, it's only at the eyes. There're no skittering feet, no frantic digging, no chirped warnings, and no explosive attempts to flee.

Then, at the base of a downed log, there's a lively scene of vibrant green moss and tender, burnished-orange fungi caps.

winter forest --
all seems dead or dormant,
but one tender scene

Dead Leaf Mantis [Haibun]

This mantis pulls off the dead leaf look. Its abdomen mimics a leaf - desiccated and rolled up upon itself. A barber-sign slant spiral of veins add the perfect touch. Even once one notices the six thin legs, legs invisible to all but a piercing, hunched-over stare, there remains a period during which it is more acceptable to the mind to think of it as twiggy leaves than as an insect. Amid a litter of dead leaves, I'm sure my eyes would never land on this skinny bug, but even on a rocky outcrop that's perpetually swept bare by way of the breezes that whip and wrap around the mountain, it still seems more leaf than bug. 

a dead leaf mantis,
standing in an unlikely place,
yet my mind screams, "Leaf!"

Desert Colors [Haiku]

in the desert,
color blooms in dense clumps
among scrubby sands

DAILY PHOTO: Macal River, Belize

Taken near San Ignacio, Belize around 2010 [From Hawkesworth Bridge]

Three Takes on a Lotus Haiku

I
lotus viewing:
still blossom, changing light;
countless sights
II
a still lotus,
a static eye, and shifting
light; boundless hues
III
view one lotus
until the changing light
makes a new bloom

DAILY PHOTO: White Flowers

Azalea; Taken in Stone Mountain, GA; Spring 2009
Magnolia; Stone Mountain; June 2009
Dogwood; Stone Mountain; Spring 2009

DAILY PHOTO: Evergreens & Mountains, Karakol NP

Taken in Karakol National Park in 2019

DAILY PHOTO: Mountain Creek

Taken in Himachal Pradesh in June of 2015

POEM: Ripples & Stillness

ripples expand
from some unseen center
where a fish feeds,
and when stillness returns
i welcome its short life